Briquet and method or process of producing same.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.-

EDWARD SHERWVOOD MEADE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

BRIQUET AND METHOD OR PROCESS OF PRODUCING SAME SPECIFICATION forming part Of LetterS Patent No. 701,365, dated June 3, 1902.

Application filed July 26, 1901. Serial No. 691757. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD SHERWOOD MEADE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Briquets and in Methods or Processes of Producing the Same, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to the manufacture of briquets or blocks from comminuted coal, coke, or other combustible material by the use of molasses as a binding agent.

Briquets made by the use ofmolasses, either alone or in combination with other substances, as a binding agent, have been heretofore made, but are liable to the following objections, among others:

First. The adhesive power and the tensile strength of the molasses are lower than the adhesive power and the tensile strength of other well-known binders-such as pitch, tar, resin, &c.which are extensively used; but these binders are more expensive than molasses. Hence many briquets are made by the use of molasses as a binding agent, but as at present produced are of inferior quality.

Second. Molasses has a marked affinity for water, and briquets made by use of molasses as a binding agent are therefore liable to disintegration when exposed to moisture or to varying climatic conditions.

The object of my invention is to remedy these defects by producing briquets in which molasses is the binder, and yet which will be free from the above defects. This I accomplish by subjecting the briquets made with molasses as a binder to a heat sufficient to coke the molasses.

In carrying out my invention I preferably proceed as follows: Blocks or briquets are made in well-known manner of comminuted coal, coke, or other combustible material, mixed with a suitable quantity of molasses as a binder. These briquets are then placed in an oven or the like and subjected to a temperature sufficient to bring them to a red heat-that is, to about 900 Fahrenheit or higher, even up to 1500". The briquets are subjected to such temperature only long enough for the molasses to be convertod into a coke by the sudden expulsion of the volatile or gaseous material therein contained. This coking of the molasses binder will begin at about 4.00 Fahrenheit; but at such temperature it would take some time to satisfactorily effect the desired action. Therefore in order to effect the same quickly I subject the briquets to the higher temperature, as above indicated. Bituminous coal will coke at temperatures varying from 900 to 1,200"; but it requires considerable time to effect such coking. As in my invention I subject mybriquets to such temperature for a very short period onlysay about a minute---the coal is not coked, or at least only very slightly so. After the molassesbinder has been thoroughly coked, as above described, the briquets are withdrawn from the oven and allowed to cool.

The coke formed from and composed of the carbon contained in the molasses by the heating operation hereinbefore described is distributed throughout the substance of the briquets and closely adheres to the particles thereof in the same manner as the molasses and continues to act as a binder for the particles of the briquets, and owing to the insolubility of the coked molasses in water and to its greater tenacity and tensile strength the briquets formed by the above process are weatherproof, as well as harder and more durable than before being so treated. I have subjected briquets made according to the above-described process to the action of boiling Water for several minutes without disintegration thereof, while those in which molasses was used as a binder, but which had not been subjected to my improved process under the same conditions, quickly decomposed and disintegrated.

I remark that, if desired, the gases yielded up during the coking action of the molasses may be collected in any suitable manner and utilized to produce the requisite heat, &c., necessary in the various operations of heat ing and conveying the briquets.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The process of weatherproofing and strengthening briquets composed of coal, coke, or the like, and molasses as a binding agent, which consists in subjecting said bri quets to sufficient heat to coke the molasses, substantially as set forth.

like, and molasses as a binding agent, in"

which the molasses has, after incorporation 2. The process of weatherproofing and iinto saidbriquet,beencoked,wherebythebristrengthening briquets composed of coal, coke, or thelike, in which molasses is the binding agent, which consists in subjecting such briquets, for a very brief period (about a minute) to a temperature considerably above that necessary to coke the molasses,whereby said molasses is quickly coked, substantially as set forth.

3. A briquet composed of coal, coke, or the 

